About

Are you interested in making a difference in Canadian politics? Found your political science courses too liberal, or not practical enough? Perhaps the “Brain & Boot Camp” is for you. This year-long Ottawa-based internship program teaches people 18-30 the practical aspects of getting elected, and also provides significant brain training on how you need to think in order to be successful in politics.

Key Components

This internship program includes 3 key components. These components are:

1. Parliamentary Work Experience

Interns will be matched up with participating Members of Parliament, and have an opportunity to experience the different aspects of parliamentary work. This may include (1) Constituent Correspondence (2) Parliamentary Committee Work (3) Research (4) Legislative Drafting (5) Speech Writing & (6) Question Period Preparation.

2. Practical Political Training

As part of their regular schedule, interns will learn and practice cutting edge campaign techniques, from door to door canvassing and phoning to party membership sales and social media outreach. This component of the program will teach interns how to campaign and prepare them to run for office or work on other campaigns in the near future.

3. Intellectual Development

This internship program includes training sessions, teaching the strategies and the frame of mind required for success in politics. Key topics covered will include:

a) Conservative Ideas – What is the intellectual foundation and substance of conservative ideas – socially, culturally, and economically? Sessions will examine a range of different thinkers and ideas to give greater depth to their conservative convictions.

b) Winning Techniques – What are the strategies and techniques that facilitate campaign success, at the level of a local campaign, as well as at the national level. These sessions will compliment practical political training by teaching the kinds of techniques that inform effective political strategy.

c) Personal Development – What are the characteristics, of thought and behaviour, that lead to excellence in political practice? Sessions will explore and facilitate discussion on this important question, using a traditional virtue typology (courage, justice, temperance, prudence). The program is ecumenical, in that it will not seek to advance one particular ideological or faith perspective, but it will invite interns to explore the connections between their personal values and political activism.